


never knew this (any of it)

by Crimson_Voltaire



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Abuse, Blood, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Missing Persons, Police, Rescue, police investigations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 08:39:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13566894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crimson_Voltaire/pseuds/Crimson_Voltaire
Summary: No one knew Percival Graves was good with kids.





	never knew this (any of it)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr to fill a prompt. Come visit me at luminis-infinite.tumblr.com.

It’s late September, 1928. Autumn brings torrential rain and one of the worst cases Tina’s been on this year. This particular day, it’s piss pouring down and the rain slices straight through her coat and hat, leaving her chilled to the bone. But Tina’s mind is elsewhere as Graves kicks down the door. It bangs against the opposite wall, cracking off its hinges with a squeal, contrasting sharply to the thud of heavy footsteps and the roar of a spell.

Everything happens so quickly after that.

The man yells, Tina flicks her wrist and there’s an awful crunching sound before more yelling and shouting and the crackle of magic in the air. Then comes silence. Tina sweeps the scene with her wand still humming, securing the man she’s just brought down with a full body bind before moving further into the dilapidated apartment.

It’s a dance of avoiding rotting floorboards and shattered glass, and fighting down the nausea. The place stinks of blood and shit, so strong Tina pulls the neck of her blouse over her nose to try and block it out.

If the stench affects Graves, though, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he plunges farther into the room with face set in stone, wand drawn and ready. Tina’s stomach plummets a little when he disappears around a corner.

“In here!”

As quickly as he’d gone, Graves reappears in the entryway to a tiny little room. Beyond the doorway, a girl huddles in the corner. She’s still wearing the filthy, bloodstained and tattered nightdress she was abducted in six days ago. Her face – which Tina remembers being slender in the photographs in the case file – now has the grey paloured gauntness of the malnourished and dehydrated. Golden hair hangs limp and greasy around that thin, frightened face, matted down with blood on one side. Tina’s heart aches and constricts – she looks so much like Queenie it hurts.

In the girl’s arms, the baby sits, barely breathing and staring out at the room with blank, glassy eyes. These are the two they’ve been searching so desperately for; Vivian, twelve, and her baby brother Mason, just seven months old, taken by their father after brutally murdering their mother.  As much as Tina wishes domestic violence was restricted solely to no-majes, it’s cases like this which remind her it isn’t true.

When Graves and Tina enter the room, the girl cries out in terror. Her magic flickers – weak and underdeveloped, but there – and she summons a lead pipe to herself by literally ripping it out of the wall. Fingers close around it, and she brandishes it at Tina and Graves, screaming, “Stay back!”   
  
Graves sheathes his wand slowly, before raising his hands with palms facing Vivian to show her that they’re empty, that he’s not a threat.   
  
“It’s alright,” he says quietly, “It’s alright.”   
  
Vivian’s lips curl back over her teeth – bloodied gums and a chipped front incisor explained by the bruise over her cheek and nose.   
  
“Vivian,” Graves tries again, voice soft and gentle, “May we come over to you? I promise your f- the bad man can’t hurt you anymore.”   
  
Both Tina and Graves shuffle to the side ever so slightly, giving Vivian full view of the doorway and the unconscious monster still laid out on the floor. Vivian chokes on something like a sob, clutching both the baby and the pipe a little tighter.   
  
“Can we come over to you, Vivian? Will you let us help you?”   
  
For a minute, Vivian hesitates, glancing between them and the empty door, before something overtakes her. The young girl lets the pipe fall and surges forward, stumbling and tumbling across the room into Graves’ open arms. A gut-wrenching sob rips her wide open, shaking her entire body. Graves motions for Tina to take the baby, before fully embracing Vivian. He doesn’t protest when blood and tears and snot soak through his jacket, nor when her fingers tear holes into it.   
  
Instead, Graves croons, “You’re safe, you’re safe now, sweetheart. It’s alright.”

\---

They apparate the children to St. Jude’s after the rest of the team arrives to collect the monster and any evidence available in the crumbling apartment. Tina takes the baby, Graves takes Vivian, and the world swirls and compresses for a moment before they’re spat out into the hands of the waiting medical staff.   
  
When the baby is relieved from her arms, Tina finds herself swept away in an avalanche of medical babble and questions needing answers. She debriefs with Picquery, with Johnson, with the head doctor, she fills out reports and not once thinks about the fact that she hasn’t seen Graves since arriving at the hospital.

\---

It’s only when five rolls around and Tina’s stomach rumbles with fury that she comes up for air. Leaning back in her chair, Tina rubs at her eyes. Upon opening them again, Vivian’s picture stares back up at her from the case file, still open from this morning. Tina’s thoughts immediately turn to the little girl.

_Wouldn’t hurt to go check on her, Tina thinks._

Upon her arrival, Tina asks the front desk for help locating the room, and in a few moments, a nurse is guiding Tina to Vivian and Mason. It’s stark, as all hospital rooms are, but the curtains are thrown open to let in the little light that manages to squeak through the rainclouds. It gives the room a different feeling – dove grey instead of bone white – softer, somehow.

Mason sleeps in a bassinet, rocked slowly by some ancient spell which hums warmly when Tina draws near. Vivian is tucked up beneath blankets and sheets on a bed, now cleaned of blood and bruises, if not the scars left behind. Tina is expecting that. She isn’t expecting Graves to sit at the foot of her bed, isn’t expecting the gentle conversation he seems to be having with her. It’s like neither of them notice her, too lost in whatever it is they’re discussing. Tina knows that to be untrue, can see the way Graves’ eyes flit to her for just half a second before turning back to Vivian, but he gives the pretense that he hasn’t noticed.

“The doctors said they won’t go away,” Vivian forces the words out, sound wobbling from between her lips and making it difficult to hear her. Tina isn’t sure what scars she’s talking about – and she doesn’t really want to know. 

“They’ll fade,” Graves replies, and upon seeing the tear roll down the young girl’s cheek, exhales in a way that sounds sad, and produces a monogrammed handkerchief. He gives it to her, a faint smile tugging on his lips when she blows her nose noisily.

“I wasn’t always proud of my scars, either. Still not proud of some,” he continues when Vivian has settled back into something like calm. At her inquisitive, if subdued expression, Graves shrugs off his jacket and undoes his cufflink with a wave of his hand, before rolling up his sleeve to reveal powerful forearm.

“Here,” he says, tapping a thin, shiny line which runs almost perpendicular to the way the bone runs, “got sliced up by a thug when I was just starting. I didn’t listen to my mentor, and ended up having to be stitched together. It was embarrassing, but I learned from it at least.”

Vivian blinks and nods, snuffling again. Tina knows it’s the shock wearing off, and in her mild surprise, realizes Graves is helping guide Vivian through it.

“What’s that one?” Vivian asks quietly, pointing to the round, circular scar in the space where Graves’ thumb met his palm. He glances down at it before chuckling.

“Do you know who Al Capone is?”

In typical teener fashion, Vivian rolls her eyes, forgetting for a moment what’s happened over the last week, and what she’s been through tonight.

“Of course! Everyone knows who Al Capone is! He’s a gangster, he’s got a gun and he -” She stills when realization dawns and she makes the connection. Golden hair flutters in the breeze she creates as Vivian whips her head around to stare at his hand. Fine brows crinkle, and Tina almost laughs aloud at her expression.

“How did-“

“Turns out Mr. Capone employed wizards to help him run his business. He didn’t take very kindly to me asking him to stop,” Graves whispers in dramatic effect, raising his hand and wiggling it at her.

Tina remembers that incident well, and the fact that Graves usually staunchly refuses to talk about his meeting with the infamous gangster.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Did you win?” Graves does laugh now, eyes crinkling at the corners and shining, “I did. I didn’t think I was going to at first, but I got through alright.” 

He then turns to Tina, addressing her with the slightest cock of a brow. Tina rolls her eyes, yet feels a flush coming to her cheeks. She steps further into the room, so Vivian can see her.

“Hi Vivian,” Tina says. Vivian gives her a shy smile and an awkward little wave, suddenly letting the curtain of her hair fall between them to partially conceal her face.

“Hi Miss Goldstein.”

“I came to see if you wanted anything for dinner. The food here is famous for being awful.” The smile she gets in return is at least a little brighter.

\---

Days later, when Vivian and Mason have gone to Kentucky to live with their Meemaw, Tina gets her chance to talk the whole thing over with Percival. Graves pours himself a fresh cup of coffee, before adding a half teaspoon of sugar and stirring. The stuff is so strong Tina is fairly sure it really would put hair on her chest, so she doesn’t bother with the pretense of pouring herself some.

Instead, she just sidles up beside her boss and friend, hip against the counter, and says, “Never knew you were so good with kids, Mr. Graves.”

He glances at her out of the corner of his eye, half incredulous, but there’s still a smile haunting his mouth. Graves continues to stir, then withdraws the spoon and taps it once against china. “You can’t know everything about me, Miss Goldstein, I have to have some secrets.”

She just snorts, before stealing a pastry off of his plate and skipping out of the way when he tries to grab it back. “Uh huh, well, I wish you’d let us in on this one a lot sooner, woulda signed you up for babysitting duty for Queenie and Jacob a lot sooner.”

Graves rolls his eyes and says, “Run along now, Auror. There’s more cases waiting.”

Neither of them say what they are both fervently thinking – that they don’t come across something like this ever again. Tina prays they won’t.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Love to hear your feedback.


End file.
